12/20/08 Identification - it's magic

Matt, Coleen, Hopereturns, and others: I have been reading through your posts tonight and I was touched by how each one of your stories is SOMEWHAT different, yet each one is oh so similar. Each of you have laid out your plans to rid yourselves of this evil drug - tramadol. With your determination - the victory is certain, even as the path for each will not be painless. But you know this and already doing battle with this drug. Good for you.

As one book puts it, "We thought we could find an easier softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely."

As I read each individual story of people becoming "fearless" in their personal battles against tramadol, I was struck TONIGHT by the fact that while we share a common enemy, how much different EACH of us is - one from one another.

Consider this - we see tramadol warriors who are grandmothers living in Florida and 30 year old snowboarders living in Oregon. We see old men, young ladies, and middle aged persons of nearly every walk of life. Some working and some are unemployed, yet all addicted to this lousy drug.

Some are married, some are single, and some divorced. Some are blessed with supporting spouses in the fight and yet there are others whose friends have left them over this drug. Some hve concerned and some hafve been forthright. Some of us suffer from depression and some are happy as clams. Some of us have been suffering for many years and others became hooked after only a few days. Some bought this drug off the internet and others had tramadol perscribed by their physicians. Some suffered monthly withdrawals regularly and others never experienced the "joy" of running low. Some took the prescribed dose as though they were a saint, while others swollowed it like candy by the handful. The drug takes us ALL down one and the same. Nope - it's the drug not our uniqueness that is the problem.

Some are moderate in all their affairs and become addicted to this drug anyway. Others of us must own six if we own one thing at all - and we become addicted in the same way.

Some of us are aquanted with other addictions, while some are fresh as the snow that falls. Yet tramadol afflicts us all.

Some took 20-30 pills per day and others took as few as 2 or less/day. And yet ALL became equally acquanted with the woes this drug provides. We have tramadol warriors here from Australia, the UK, Canada and several states in the U.S.A. , yet this addiction knows no borders. But as each of us offers up our own story, others may see something of THEMSELVES in the stories we each share. And that is straight up MAGIC.

Webster defines "indentification" as "putting one's self in ANOTHER'S PLACE, so as to understand and share the other's feelings, thoughts, problems, etc."

As each of us shares our story here, we are not only taking ACTION to become WELL ourselves, but we mark the path for another to identify with.

When I got here three weeks ago, I identifed with someone quoted in Emily's earliest posts by the name of Cadallic Jack. He told me by his words, that the only way to beat this drug was to be willing to go to any length to do war against tramadol. His words got me though more than one sleepless night because I IDENTIFIED with his STORY and his words. That's the magic.

Izzy's story, Organica's Story, Emily's story, or Coleen's story may not resinate with each and every reader of these posts. But as we continue to tell our OWN stories, as day upon day we share our victories and setbacks in OUR fight, together we will turn our words into STORIES for others to read and IDENTIFY WITH.

And as enough stories become told, someone one day will read your story or mine, and IDENTIFY with our story - as though they were reading THEIR own story. As if they had WRITTEN it themself from the very beginning. That's identification. And when that sort of **** happens, it's magical.

its definitely kind of magical for me tonight. i felt so crazy and irrational because the doctor and pharmacist kept telling met that tram withdrawal just isnt that bad. and i can't even tell my husband because how do you explain to someone with a normal brain how the addict brain works and tricks us into poisoning ourselves over and over long after we know better? thanks for letting me identify with you tonight, sir. it's nice to know that there are others (other parents especially), not so different at all.

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